


Nothing Gold Can Stay

by xissiar



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Actual Violence, Alex needs more attention, Alexander Hamilton is the bisexual zombie killer we deserve, Angelica needs a damn break, Badass John, Banter, F/M, Humor, John Needs A Hug, M/M, Metaphors, Sexual Tension, Surprises, Zombie AU, Zombie Apocalypse, author is back on her bullshit, drug references, im so proud of this just read her pls, mentions of gang violence, skeleton with a baseball hat and a pipe in its mouth, strap in kiddos I done it this time, tragic backstories galore, well developed plot line?? can u imagine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 15:31:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17880401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xissiar/pseuds/xissiar
Summary: In which humans have gone feral, and the ones who haven't are left picking up the pieces.





	Nothing Gold Can Stay

_"Then leaf subsides to leaf._  
_So Eden sank to grief,_  
_So dawn goes down to day._  
_Nothing gold can stay."_

_-Robert Frost_

 

The sun shined as though the trees as if there was still something on this world left to illuminate, the breeze shook the leaves gently, the gusts of early autumn changing their colors from stale green to their vibrant death in hues of orange, yellow, and red.

This, Alex thought, was the strangest thing about the apocalypse. The world carried on, whether or not humanity was able to.

“Alex.”

Low, something like a hiss. He turned his head.

Angie was crouching, her sister nowhere to be found. She pointed behind him.

It was standing, straighter than what monster movies would have you believe. They always carried themselves like people, were more recognizably human than anything else. Skin rotting, hair flat with grease, eyes glazed over with a thin film of green.

This one couldn’t see.

So he holds his breath, draws a knife from his thigh holster as silently as possible, and lunges.

And the creature goes down, throat open, bleeding what little blood it had left. Angie sits back up, looks at him disinterestedly.

“It was walking away, you know. You could’ve left it.”

Alex shrugged, pocketed his knife. “Easier this way. Now we don’t have to wait. We need to get back to Eliza.”

“Calm down there, killer,” she taunted. “She’s literally like three yards away.”

Alex looked at the old house they’d found out here in the middle of nowhere. Half of its ceiling was caved in, termites and roaches had been the only residents of the house for who knows how long, but it seemed these country houses had the most left in them. Retail shops, pharmacies, grocery stores, everything urban had been all but cleared out.

They climbed up the creaky steps side by side, Alex held the door for Angie, because humanity might be dead but chivalry wasn’t.

When they got in, they saw Eliza rummaging the cupboards, humming to herself.

“Anything?” Alex asked.

“Coffee mugs,” Eliza said. “Empty beer cans, Bandaids, deodorant.”

“Fuck yeah,” Alex smiled. “All of my favorite things.”

“Protect that deodorant with your life,” Angie said seriously. “You know what our lives are like without it.”

They all shuddered at the thought.

“Come with me,” Eliza looked at Alex. “Help me check the closets.”

They walked down the unfamiliar hallway, hand in hand, and stopped at the first door. Eliza walked in fearlessly, Alex right behind her.

“Shit,” he breathed.

A corpse in the bed, rotted enough to be unrecognizable but not quite gone enough to be just a skeleton. Someone had been here, placed a ball cap on its head and a pipe in its rotting mouth.

Eliza stared for a moment, only a moment, before turning straight to the closet. She used to be so scared of them, would freeze at the mention. Time and exposure had hardened her to them, and Alex wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It’s funny how the smell of rotten flesh gets more and more bearable every time you face it.

“You get the nightstand,” she said.

Alex opened the nightstand, dusty from neglect. Some papers worn thin with age, a bracelet, some hair ties.

“You need some hair ties?” Alex asked.

“Sure.”

He threw them in her direction, Eliza caught them with one hand.

Alex kept rummaging, stopped when he found something.

“There’s actual heroin needles in here.”

“What? No,” Eliza walked over to look. About four or five of them in the drawer, just thrown around. Used, by the looks of it. Two stained red t-shirts sat loosely beside them.

Alex gave a big theatrical fake gag. “Done touching shit in this drawer.”

"Yikes," Eliza went back over to the closet. Alex opened the next drawer down.

“Yo,” he said, eyebrows raised suggestively. He held up a box of condoms and a small bottle of lube.

Eliza rolled her eyes. “Those are magnum. Keep dreaming.”

“Okay, _ouch,”_ Alex said, hand on his heart. “That was cold.”

“We can take the lube though.”

“And suddenly things are better,” he smiled. “You finding anything?”

“Want a leather jacket?” She asked, drawing out a men’s leather jacket.

“Oh hell yeah,” Alex rose to his feet, took it off the hanger and tried it on. He spun around for her. “Am I looking like a whole snack or what?”

She laughed in response. “You’re always looking like a whole snack.”

Alex rose his eyebrows, leaned in for a kiss.

It lasted just a moment before Eliza pulled away.

“Dead guy in the bed.”

“Right.”

“Not okay.”

“Right.”

Alex turned away, went back to shuffling through drawers. Nothing of any interest. Some live roaches, some dead roaches, old underwear, a mostly empty packet of rotting cigarettes, and at the bottom there was a—

“Holy _shit,_ ” Alex pulled the map out delicately. “Eliza,” he breathed, held it up so she could see.

“You found a map!”

“I found a map!”

“Backpack,” she said, gesturing to his stained backpack. “It’ll come in handy.”

Ever the obedient boyfriend, Alex did as he was told. He kneeled down and opened his bag, careful to keep the map from getting ruined in there. When he was done, Eliza was looking at him.

He did a quick no-hands hair flip to get his bangs out of his eye, hands still rummaging his backpack. He smiled back up at her. “What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing,” she smiled cheekily.

“Uh-huh,” Alex deadpanned. “I saw you checking me out.”

“And I’m gonna kill myself if you don’t stop flirting,” Angie said from the doorway, Alex jumped.

“Have you been here this whole time?”

She smiled. “Don’t worry about it. Finding anything?”

“Hair ties, lu—“

“ _Alex_ ,” Eliza scolded.

“Lucky rabbits foot. Jeez, Eliza let a guy finish his sentence.”

“Where’s the rabbits foot then?” Angie asked, arms crossed.

Alex made a big show of patting his pockets and backpack. “Shit it’s gone! Maybe it wasn’t so lucky.”

“Right,” Angie said, voice even. “You two ready to go? I already cleared the other rooms. Well, the ones I could get into, anyway.”

“Did you find anything?” Eliza asked.

“A bit, nothing to write home about,” she responded. “Need to get some food soon.”

Back outside, the wind had picked up a bit. Eliza shivered, Alex shrugged off his jacket and put it on her instead.

“I don’t need this—“ she said.

“You’re anemic,” Angie argued. “And you get colder than he does.”

“She’s right. Wear the jacket or I’ll cook it and eat it.”

Eliza made a face. “Weirdo.”

“Yet somehow I landed you,” he mused. “Crazy world we live in, eh?”

“Feral.”

Alex spun on his heel, but not before Angelica had already put a bullet in its head, straight between the eyes, with her silenced .22. They both stopped to look at her.

“Alright, little miss reflexes,” Alex said, impressed. “That was pretty cool.”

She shrugged. “What can I say, it’s a gift.”

She looked like a warrior, he thought. Brown jacket, black tank top, motorcycle boots that looked damn good but were wearing thin. Hair braided back behind her head, two guns and ammo strapped to her. Like a goddamn Amazonian princess of war or something.

Eliza, on the other hand, was very different. She had never really assimilated into the new world, every minor change in her had been a huge struggle, two forces fighting one another. Purity practically radiated off of her, even if she wasn’t pure herself. Specks of blood on her long sleeve shirt, brown eyes darkened, hardened with every passing day. Still, she smiled like the sunrise, like none of this touched her. As soon as they met, Alex knew he would be a goner for this girl.

“Can you stop it with the bedroom eyes for like two seconds please,” Angie said.

He startled, realized he’d been caught. “Wasn’t making bedroom eyes,” he defended under his breath.

They kept walking for hours, until the sun started to disappear over the country tree tops. Tonight was shelter-less, which meant somebody had to be on watch. Angie was laying down cloth for them to lay on, the crickets were starting to chirp.

“Who’s on watch?” She asked.

“I think it’s my turn,” Eliza said.

And so they laid down, tried to sleep on the cold ground, tried to ignore the sounds around them. Alex wasn’t sure how long it took for him to get tired of trying to sleep and sit up. Angie was already gone, fast asleep, her back to them. Alex poked his head up, looked at Eliza.

She looked at him, cocked an eyebrow. “Why are you up?” She asked.

She shrugged, moved over so he could sit next to her. They sat in silence, eventually Eliza laid her head on his shoulder.

“What do you miss the most?” She asked, voice low and sweet.

“About?” Alex felt shrill in comparison.

“The way things used to be.”

“I don’t know,” he sighed. “Showers? Sure took those for granted.”

“I’m serious,” she said.

“So am I,” he responded. “I moved from the Caribbean right before… everything. I didn’t know anybody here. Took the goddamn apocalypse for me to make some friends, and that’s you and your sister.”

He didn’t say it, but sometimes he thought it was better this way. He finally had friends, people to talk to, finally had someone to hold him when things got rough. Life now was almost animalistic, it involved a lot less thinking. After he met Eliza, his brain fell silent for the first time in his whole life, and he’d been reveling in it ever since.

She reached out, grabbed his hand, and he felt more at ease immediately. If touches could heal, he’d never be broken.

“What about you?” He asked.

“Pegs,” she answered immediately, voice barely a whisper. “I miss her the most.”

He planted a soft kiss on her hair, rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. “I know you do.”

When Alex found the Schuyler sisters, they had been on a quest to find their youngest sister, Peggy. A desperate, seemingly never-ending search that eventually concluded with the unavoidable truth. They didn’t have the body, but of course their sister was dead. Coming to terms with that hadn’t been easy for either of them. Where Eliza let herself fall apart, let Alex take care of her, Angie would never. She’d bottle it up until the day she died.

He gazed at her sleeping form for a moment, always mesmerized by how she looked when she wasn’t guarded.

Eliza moved her head, up even with Alex’s, pressed their foreheads together. He closed his eyes, so caught up in her his breath hitched. She never kissed first, he didn’t know why, so he leaned in and kissed her gently, cupped his hand on her jaw.

“Alexander,” was all she said, not a call or a request, just feeling his name on her tongue.

“I think I love you,” he said, genuine, heart beating hard.

She smiled lightly. “Go to bed, Alexander.”

“‘Liza—“

“You stayed up last night. You need the rest.”

The exhaustion hit him in a wave, of course Eliza called it before he did.

“Just for a few hours,” he said, closing his eyes, leaning against her.

“A few hours,” she repeated, he heard the smile in her voice, drifted off to sleep peacefully.

 

 

 

He blinked awake, the early streams of sunlight beaming through the trees onto his face. Small breaths on his nose, he smiled dimly, groggy from sleep.

“‘Liza,” He smiled, reached out. Eliza’s hair sure was _furry_ —

His eyes shot open, he screamed.

“Fuckin _’ squirrel!_ ” He flailed, sat up in place, he could hear Angelica laughing at him.

The squirrel scurried away, found its way all the way up a tree, probably as traumatized as Alex was. Eliza slept peacefully on the ground a few feet away.

“So romantic,” Angie said with fake sincerity.

He flipped her off. “Leave me alone.”

She shrugged, kept cleaning her guns. Only the faint clink of metal could be heard, along with occasional bird chirps.

“Wait,” Alex said. “How long have you been up?”

She shrugged again. “Few hours. Woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, took watch so she could get in a few hours.”

He nodded. “Found a map back at the house,” he explained, reached for his backpack as gently as possible, as not to wake Eliza beside it.

“Map of here?”

“Yeah, it was in the dead guy’s drawer.”

“Cool,” she said. “Maybe we can find a river nearby or something. We also need to get food soon, but I can take care of that.”

Alex nodded gratefully, unfolding the map. It was faded a bit, but still legible.

“Wait,” he said, he felt his heart skip a little. “Wait. Angie.”

“What?”

He scurried over beside her, sat down, shoved the map in front of her. “Look,” he said. “Look at that.”

She was silent, chewed on her lip.

“This could be anything,” she said.

“Angie, are you fucking kidding me?” He asked just a little too loudly, and Eliza stirred awake. “It’s a sign if I’ve ever seen one,” he said.

On the map, not far from where they must’ve been, was a red circle, and scrawled in a hurry, all upper case, was the word “SAFEHOUSE.”

“What is it?” Eliza asked.

“Safehouse,” Alex breathed. “It’s a safehouse.”

“What?” Eliza practically ran over to them, leaned over to look. “Like a military facility?”

“This could be anything,” Angie said. “Literally anything. It could even have been done pre-virus. And how would it end up in some dead guy’s drawer?”

“Why don’t you let yourself hope for once,” Eliza said, irritated. “It’s _something._ It’s more than we had. We have to at least take the chance.”

Angie sighed. “Our odds are slim. I just don’t want you to get your hopes up too high.”

“Too late, they’re up. Are they up, Eliza?” Alex asked.

“Fuck yeah they are.”

“Hopes are up. Higher than the sky,” he rose to his feet, held out a hand to help Eliza up too. “Let’s go.”

Angie just stared at them. “This is literally the apocalypse. I’d appreciate some realism here.”

“Who says optimism can’t be realistic?” Alex smiled, held out his hand to help her up.

She smiled slightly, shook her head. “Idiots.”

 

 

 

Somewhere between the forest and the small city, Alex, not being the one with the map as per Angie’s relentless insistence that she do it, didn’t know where they were. Small, ghost town sort of place. The occasional Feral, nothing Alex and Angie couldn’t take out pretty quick. They ducked in an old supermarket, found some canned food miraculously still on the shelves. Even the apocalypse can’t make people eat Spam.

“How long until the place?” Alex asked, exiting the small supermarket.

“Next town over,” Angie squinted at the map. “If we don’t stop again we can make it long before sundown.

The first town passed quietly, very little blood on any of their hands. The next one over seemed a little more populous, cars littering the highway that cut the town in half. Another ghost town, seemingly without any Ferals stalking around. It was relieving if not highly unsettling.

Then, things changed.

All he knew was they stopped for a moment, each took drinks of water, and when they rounded the corner there was a herd.

They didn’t seem to usually travel in packs, it was rare to see more than a few at a time, but very dangerous. They were all gathered around a certain point, Alex wasn’t sure what it was. Something they were all trying to eat. Grotesque wet sounds mixed with some groans vibrated off the buildings, made Alex sick to his stomach.

They were silent, hoping against all hope that somehow they could sneak out of this. Of course, a Feral in an old business suit of them saw the three of them, made some sort of yell, and suddenly, about thirty of them were coming straight for them. Some of them could still speak legible English, and were calling out to them. Alex tried to ignore that.

“We can’t fight this many,” Alex said, calculating.

“Safehouse is just a few blocks over,” Angie said. “Assuming it exists.”

“So?” Alex asked.

“So run like hell!” Eliza said, turning on a dime and taking off.

The autumn air, crisp in its changes, bit at his lungs with every step. His backpack hit against his back relentlessly, nothing but the sound of boots on pavement and panting, mixed of course with the inhuman howls, grunts, and occasional words from the pack of Ferals behind them.

“How,” Alex panted, “Much longer?”

Angie didn’t respond, kept running.

A curb, a sick cracking sound, a scream, suddenly there were only two of them side by side. Before Alex could react Angie was on her sister, pulling her up off the ground.

“Ankle,” Eliza breathed.

Alex didn’t even think, just took her and threw her over his shoulder as quick and gracelessly as possible. The herd was closer.

“There,” Angie turned quick, Alex turned with her.

“The movie theater?” He panted.

“It’s fenced in. It’s the safehouse.”

Alex didn’t even have it in him to make fun of the absurdity of the situation, just needed to get Eliza to safety. Payed attention only to the sound of his boots hitting the pavement with each step, tried to ignore the burning in his lungs from the sudden exercise.

They approached it, the gate didn’t open, and nobody was outside with the key to open it for them. The herd was still coming, slightly thrown off by the quick turn, but still coming.

They shook the gate, but it was locked. Completely sealed off.

“Is this a bad time to say I told you so?” Angie breathed.

“Jump it,” Alex said to her, who shook her head.

“Not without you.”

“Then you’re gonna fucking die here,” Alex said, propped Eliza down, let her lean on her sister. He plucked a bobby pin out of Angie’s hair, mentally preparing himself for the scolding of a lifetime for touching her hair without her consent. Kneeled down and started working on the lock.

“Alex,” Eliza said, worried. “Alex we need another plan. This isn't fast enough.”

She was panicking and in a lot of pain, but Alex tried to stay calm. It was a simple lock to pick, if he could just—

“What the hell?” Eliza said, Alex turned to look.

They were still coming, all in a herd, but they were dropping one by one, Alex couldn’t tell from what. When the lock under his hands finally gave, he grabbed Eliza again.

A man in a large coat standing in the theater doorway, waving them in, like a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean. The time between the gate and the doors felt like an eternity, dragging Eliza with a herd behind them.

They finally made it in, and the man closed the door and locked it behind him.

Outside, the herd was still dropping, now he could see it was arrows taking them down.

The big windows in the front of the theater made it easy to see if anything was coming their way. The lobby inside was small, still movie posters up from almost a year ago when all of this started. The typical small town movie theater, it seemed.

“Some kind of archery club or something?” Alex panted, gesturing outside. He walked over to plant Eliza in a seat.

The man didn’t smile. “They just saved your life. All your lives.”

“And we appreciate it,” Angie said, smiled at the man, all politics. “I’m Angelica Schuyler.”

“Hercules Mulligan.”

Alex bit back a sharp laugh, Angie glared daggers at him.

“Alexander Hamilton,” he smiled.

“Elizabeth Schuyler,” Eliza said.

“Thought you were gonna leave us out there,” Alex said. “Took your time helping us out.”

“We thought you might be part of a certain group,” Hercules narrowed his eyes at them. “We have no way of knowing you aren’t.”

“What group?” Angie asked. “Somebody is attacking you?”

“Somebody _wants_ to attack us,” Hercules said. “But you don’t seem like the type. Never seen you before.”

“Do you have anyone here who can help with her injuries?” Alex asked, serious again. “She fell on the way here. Fucked her ankle, some scratches and scrapes too I think.”

“In the kitchen behind the concession stand, that’s where our medical supplies is. I’ll get Laf.”

“Is Laf a doctor?” Alex asked.

“Nope,” Hercules said simply, disappearing into one of the theaters.

“Angie,” Alex whispered when they were alone. “‘Liza. What if we fucked up by coming here?”

“He was pretty friendly, I think, given the circumstances,” Eliza defended. “If it were reversed we wouldn’t be happy to see three new people either. Especially an injured one,” she gestured at her foot.

“If this goes south,” Angie said. “Be ready. We can shoot out some of these big windows if they lock the doors. Don’t let them disarm us at any point.”

“There are still good people, Ang,” Eliza said.

Angie didn’t respond, just watched the doorway grimly.

Another man came out, tall, big hair tied back, muscles bulging through his sweater. “This way, please,” he said to them, French accent thick.

“Damn,” Alex said, eyeing him up and down. “Just remembered how bi I am.”

Eliza smacked his arm. “Help me over there. And don’t flirt with him while I’m too injured to out-flirt you.”

“Wasn’t gonna flirt,” He hoisted her up, Angie took her other side. “You’re the apple of my eye, sweet thing.”

“Actually gonna vomit,” Angie rolled her eyes.

“By the way,” Alex gestured around them. “Is this a bad time to say I told you so?”

Eliza giggled, Angie glared daggers.

Behind the concession stand was a small room, miraculously still stocked with a few bags of popcorn seed. It used to serve as the kitchen, there was a sink and a dish rack with old popcorn scoops and plates. There was a small table, and a man pulled a chair up, preparing his medical supplies.

“My name is Lafayette,” he smiled. “I can help with the injuries.”

Alex _so_ wanted to flirt, just for the good time, and just for the novelty of flirting with another man after being around only women for so long, but he didn’t. Really, nothing good could come from it. Eliza probably wouldn’t even think it was funny in this state.

“Her ankle is facing the wrong way,” Alex said helpfully, sitting Eliza down and propping her leg up beside Lafayette.

A sharp intake of breath when he saw her injury. “Mon cher,” he breathed. “This is… you are in a lot of pain, no?”

Eliza nodded silently, forever stronger than the rest of them.

“I can move it back into place, but I need you to stay off it for a few days,” he said. “It will not be healed.”

Eliza shook her head. “Can’t. We’re between places right now. I can’t afford to stay off it for a few days.”

Lafayette chuckled at her, and Alex cleared his throat, gave him the coldest look he could muster.

“Do excuse me,” Lafayette said. “I laugh because you are in a safe house now, no?”

“We can stay?” Eliza asked.

“Well,” Lafayette said, reaching up to bandage her knee and palm wounds. “It is not entirely up to me. Laurens handles these sort of things, usually.”

“Who’s Lawrence?” Alex asked.

“Laurens,” Lafayette corrected. “You will meet him soon. I think he was the one on the roof with the arrows, along with Burr.”

“Burr?”

“You still have a lot of people to meet,” Lafayette smiled kindly. He worked in silence for a while, before she was all patched up. “I’m going to take care of your ankle now.”

“Okay,” Eliza said.

“We are out of pain medication,” Lafayette said, reached for a rag. “You might want to bite down on this.”

Eliza looked vaguely panicked, Alex just rubbed a hand across her back, let her hold his hand. When Lafayette raised her ankle up, she buried her face in Alex’s neck.

“On three,” Lafayette said. “One, two,” Eliza bit down on the rag, closed her eyes. “Three.”

A terrible crack, an even worse noise from Eliza’s mouth, crying out in pain. Her scream made him sick, and the clutched his hand so tight it left fingernail marks.

“Is it done?” He asked.

“It is done,” Lafayette said. “But I will wrap it.”

“You did it,” Alex brushed some hair out of her face, kissed her gently on the temple. “See? Wasn’t so bad.”

“Let’s snap your ankle and see if you feel the same way,” she bit back, sitting up.

“Okay, I was going for a loving thing here and you hit me with the sass—“

“Alright,” Hercules walked back in the door, cutting Alex off. “We gotta talk.”

“Where is John?” Lafayette asked.

“Busy,” Hercules said. “Listen, we’d love to help you guys out, but we’re barely holding up here as it is.”

“We just need somewhere to lay low until Eliza can walk again,” Alex said, lawyering up. “We’ll provide our own food, we just need a temporary safe place.”

Hercules looked like he was considering it.

“Are you just relaying what John said to you?” Lafayette asked.

Hercules glared. “Maybe.”

“Tell John that Washington would have let them stay. See how that sits with him.”

A silence, Hercules shook his head. “I’m really not trying to add more to his plate.”

“Would you like me to do it instead?” Lafayette suggested. “Because I will not be delicate.”

“He’s a grown ass man, he doesn’t need you to be delicate.”

“Go,” Lafayette waved a hand. “The only reason he is not in here with you is because—“

“Yeah, yeah,” Hercules cut him off. “Whatever. I’ll go tell him.”

“Is because why?” Angie asked.

“He likely does not believe he can throw you out if he sees you,” Lafayette said. “And he probably does genuinely think you will all be leeches, but I digress.”

“Nobody is gonna be a leech,” Eliza muttered. “Thank you for taking care of me, Lafayette. And thank you for defending us.”

Lafayette smiled, nodded graciously. “Anytime, mon cher.”

“Are we gonna get to meet this John Laurens guy?” Alex asked. “Sounds like a real dick.”

“He can be,” Lafayette said. “It’s hard being in charge of a large group of people in a building that’s slowly falling apart. This is why no one stepped up when Washington died. He is leader by default.”

“Who was Washington?” Eliza asked.

“He used to be the man in charge,” Lafayette explained. “Died a few months ago. John was very close to him.”

Hercules stepped back in. Lafayette looked at him, raised an eyebrow.

“It worked,” Hercules shrugged. “But, seriously, don’t eat our food.”

“Deal,” Angie nodded and stood up. “I’ll go hunting.”

She walked outside, right past Hercules out the door. When she exited, he leaned back and gave her retreating figure a once over. He whistled lightly.

“Dog,” Lafayette rolled his eyes. “Just an absolute dog.”

“What?” Herc asked. “You ever _seen_ somebody as hot as her?”

“Good luck with that, buddy,” Alex muttered. “You’re headed down a dead-end road.”

Hercules nodded. “We’ll see about that.”

“I’ve known her since I was born,” Eliza spoke up. “She doesn’t date. Like, anyone. Ever. Your chances are astronomically slim.”

“I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge,” Hercules grinned.

“Why don’t you go hang out with Burr or something?” Laf snapped.

Hercules made a face. “Because nobody likes Burr.”

“Take the hint,” Lafayette said. Hercules nodded and made his exit.

“Who’s Burr?” Alex asked.

“Weapons specialist,” Lafayette said. “He is set up in the supply closet, assuming he is done collecting those arrows.”

Alex nodded, Eliza waved a hand. “Go meet more people. I know you want to.”

He smiled. “I would, but it can wait,” he kissed the back of her hand. “I know you’re hurting. I wanna stay with you.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“According to Lafayette’s horrified face when he saw it, I’d say that’s an understatement,” Alex said. Lafayette nodded silently in agreement. “Let’s play the game to pass the time. Pick a letter.”

“Hmm,” she considered. “H?”

“H,” Alex repeated. “Hamilton.”

“No proper nouns.”

“Ugh,” he rolled his eyes. “Okay. Ham.”

“Ham? Really? You’re going with Ham?”

“Starting simple. Sue me.”

“Okay,” Eliza nodded. “Halt.”

“Hefty?”

“Heck.”

“High.”

“His.”

“Hers,” Alex smiled.

“Hispanic,” Eliza said.

“Oooh, bigger words. Okay. Hippopotamus.”

“Hypochondriac.”

“Hypocrite.”

She thought for a moment.

“Time’s running out,” Alex taunted. “Better think of another H word.”

“Shit,” she said, racking her brain.

“Starts with S. Try again ma’am.”

She smiled. “Hyperactive.”

“Okay,” Alex nodded, chewed on the inside of his cheek while he thought. “Okay,” he repeated.

“You can’t think of another word,” she smiled.

“No, I can, I’m making you wait in suspense.”

“Five,” she counted down, he kept racking his brain. “Four, three, two—“

“Hypoglycemia!” He yelled, she laughed.

They continued on until Lafayette had long left the room Eliza finally got tired of it. “Kind of want to nap,” she said.

“They probably have cots or something,” he helped her up. “Come on, we’ll find out.”

They hobbled out of the kitchen area until they were back in the lobby. Hercules was leaning in the door of a small office, talking to someone in it.

“Hey Herc!” Alex called. “You got a place for her to sleep?”

“Theater One,” he answered. “All the way at the front.”

He nodded. “Thanks.”

The theater was small, and pretty steeply sloped. He helped Eliza hobble down. It was empty, but sure enough there were plenty of cots laid out in the front. He helped her down, covered her up.

“Thank you,” she said, looking up at him. “For helping me. And for arguing with Herc until he gave in.”

“What, you think I did that for free?” Alex asked. “No ma’am. I’m gonna need fifty dollars, up front.”

“Damn,” she sighed. “Don’t have it.”

“Well you better think of a way of payment,” he teased. “And a tip.” He winked.

She nodded, reached in her pocket, brought out a hairband. “Well here’s your tip: tie your hair up, you look like a hippie.”

He bit back a smile. “So _rude,_ ” he shook his head, but took the hairband. “Goodnight,” he said seriously, leaning down and giving her a quick kiss.

“Night,” she smiled, nuzzled into him for a moment, then turned over in her cot.

 

 

 

Within the hour, as promised, Angie was back toting a whole deer, one bullet in its head.

Alex ran outside to help her haul it inside the fence. “Need to skin it quick before these bugs eat it up,” Angie said. “Help me get it tied up.”

He did as he was told, only mildly freaked out about the huge dead creature they were tying upside down. As soon as they were done, he went back inside, really couldn’t stand to watch the skinning part.

When he came back inside the theater, Laf and Herc were standing there, mouths wide open.

“Can I help you gents?” Alex asked.

“She really killed a fucking deer,” Hercules said in wonderment.

“She’s a hell of a hunter. Has to be, Eliza and I don’t have the stomach for it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to rinse the deer blood off my hands before I actually vomit.”

He walked right past them to the bathrooms that still by some miracle had running water. Watched the rich ruby wash off his hands, down the drain. He looked up at his reflection in the mirror.

He hadn’t really looked at himself in a long time. It was… unsettling, almost. He turned and left the bathroom. The two men were still standing in the lobby.

“I’m gonna go help her skin that deer,” Hercules said decisively, and Lafayette groaned.

“Do you even know how to skin a deer?” He asked.

“Nope,” Hercules answered. “Wish me luck,” he said as he walked out of the front door, towards Angelica.

A small silence before Lafayette turned to him.

“Would you like to meet Burr?” He asked.

Alex smiled. “Sure!”

He felt overzealous, like an excited puppy meeting new people. Alex was a people person, always had been. Sort of thrived on meeting, talking, and arguing with people.

Burr was set up in what used to be the janitors closet. When Alex saw the room, his jaw hit the floor.

“Holy _shit,_ ” he said.

Guns, crossbows, ammo, arrows, even fucking swords were lining the walls, covering the shelves. It was like they were supplying a SEAL team or something.

A man was standing in the center of it, writing something down on a clipboard. He looked up, smiled at the company.

“Lafayette,” he greeted. “And…?”

“I’m Alexander Hamilton,” he said brightly. “And, holy shit. Did I say that already?”

“You did.”

“I meant it. Holy _shit_ you have a lot of weapons in here.”

Burr shrugged. “Been collecting since… well, for a long time. Keep track of the gun to ammo count, stuff like that. I’m technically the only one allowed in here.”

Alex nodded, excited. Burr looked down at Alex’s feet, firmly planted in the middle of the room, then back up at his face.

“Oh! Right. Sorry,” Alex took a few steps back to the doorway. “It was good meeting you!”

“You too, Alexander.”

“You can call me Alex.”

Burr smiled. “You too, Alex,” he corrected.

 

 

To be fair, it wasn’t Alex’s intention to eavesdrop.

It happened while Alex was roaming around, looking in each of the three theaters. Nothing too special, one housed supplies, one was only for sleeping, one was pretty empty. John’s office was on the other side of the entrance to one of them, door closed.

Again, he hadn’t intended to eavesdrop. But he heard arguing, and, like a good lawyer, went towards it. Casually leaned his ear against the office door.

“—no need to slave over the fence problem,” a thick French accent said.

“The fence problem could literally kill us, Laf,” the other voice— presumably John’s— said. “As could the generator problem.”

“Both can be fixed with time,” Laf said.

“Is there something else you wanted to bitch at me about or is it just the fence and the new people?” John bit back. “Using Washington’s name was low, by the way.”

“He would’ve let them in,” Lafayette said simply. “He let _you_ in, after all. And I promise you all three of them looked better than you did when you came in.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize it was national ‘Kick John While He’s Down’ day, I’ll alert the papers.”

“You need to meet them. Show them they are welcome,” Lafayette said.

“Maybe they’re _not_ welcome and they should know that.”

“One of the girls can hunt. She shot a whole deer and brought it back, they are cooking it now.”

“Great. Maybe that’ll balance out the useless one.”

Alex’s chest flared up in anger, but he forced it down. Really couldn’t fight this guy through the door.

“What about the guy?” John asked.

“Other than being obsessed with the injured girl, I do not know a lot about him,” Lafayette said.

John’s eye roll was almost audible. “Fantastic.”

“Do you have the rounds papers from yesterday?” Lafayette asked. “I want to check them.”

“Yeah,” a pause. “There. Why?”

“I was confused if the—“

Alex left the doors side when the conversation turned boring. Was everyone here kind of a dick?

He opted to just go sit in one of the theaters and stare at the screen. Amazing how the apocalypse teaches a guy patience.

Sitting in the dim theater, contemplating his place in this dead world, he felt almost at peace. Started to doze off, kicked his feet up, and carelessly let sleep pull him under.

 

 

There was fighting, there was screaming.

Alex’s eyes opened immediately, his head shot up. With dizzying disorientation he realized he was still in the theater. He stood, nobody was around him. The noise was muffled, must be coming from right outside.

Alex kept a knife in each boot. He pulled one out, walked slowly around the corner and out the front door as quietly as possible.

Angie, Lafayette, and another, much shorter man were all gathered around someone Alex couldn’t see. They all looked tense.

“You’re not welcome here, Lee,” one man said, Alex assumed it to be the famous John he’d been hearing so much about.

“Since when are you in charge?” Lee spat. “Let me talk to Washington.”

Alex approached closer. Lee was fairly tall, shaved sides of his head, big brown eyes, and he looked wild.

Across from him was probably John, who seemed simultaneously more and less terrifying than Alex had imagined. He was a young thing, couldn’t be much older than Alex and probably as young as Lee looked. Curly hair, hazel eyes, so many freckles Alex could see them from where he was standing. If it weren’t for his body language, if it weren’t for the look in his eyes, he would’ve seemed so much younger.

“Washington’s dead,” John said. “But something tells me you knew that.”

“This is my _home,”_ Lee said. “Look, I’m out of luck, okay? My boys are dead. Fought when they should’ve ran. I need a place to stay, people to stay with. I can’t last out there alone. I’ll be dead before sunrise.”

“Promise?” Angie asked.

Lee rolled his eyes. “Fuck you. I don’t even know you. John,” he turned to John. “Look, man, I’m begging you. We’re _brothers_ , in case you forgot. That’s the type of bond that don’t break.”

“You broke it when you betrayed Washington,” John said. “Leave that brother shit behind. We have real problems now, not a turf war.”

“Please don’t leave me out there to die,” Lee begged. “Come on, man.”

“Wish I could trust you, Lee. I do,” John said. “But I just can’t. Get off this property before I make you.”

Lee scoffed, nodded his head. “I assumed it was going to go like this.”

Alex saw it first. A metallic flick, a knife in Lee’s right hand. It happened in slow motion. Lee drew it up, moved it to his hip, Alex started running. Autopilot. Only the feeling of his soles hitting the dirt, thudding in the silence.

Lee lunged at John, eyes wild, unstable. Alex was on time, grabbed Lee by the wrist, twisted it around until he heard a sickening _crack,_ and, oh, he hadn't expected that _._  Lee dropped the knife behind him. 

Then everything happened at once. Movement from every direction. More people, actual human ones, leapt the fence as if on cue. Maybe ten of them, Alex couldn’t tell. An ambush. 

Maybe this was going to be it. Alex caught glimpses of most of them. 

“Protect the house,” John said. “Laf, go inside and get Burr on the roof.”

It was apparent John and Angie were not thinking the same vaguely suicidal thoughts Alex was. Alex could've died here, but he wouldn't let them die here. 

Laf turned immediately and went back inside. Alex breathed deep, focused on the side of the fence nearest him. Two girls, two boys, running at them, no weapons or anything. Most of them had the same haircut, uneven, choppy— they looked untamed and harsh. He didn’t even glance at the other fence, the one John was nearest to. They all had on some scrap of red clothing.

“Something tells me these guys won’t want to talk this out,” Alex said.

“I got these two,” Angie ran towards them, met them halfway. Immediately took one out with a bullet to the neck, but the other wrestled the gun away from her. They both hit the ground, struggling.

Then it was the two men, one tried to team up against Angelica, Alex threw one of his knives, nailed him in the eye. He had never done that with a human before. His stomach churned.

Two down.

An invisible tally on his heart, carving a bit of him away. No time for that.

Another man tackled him from behind, started trying to get Alex in a headlock. Alex fought, flailed, kicked, but the other man was stronger. Pressure on his windpipe. Alex’s vision started to blur. For a moment, he thought this was it.

The pressure suddenly alleviated. A dull _thud_ , the grip around his neck loosened, the man dropped.

“We’re square,” Alex blinked up at John, who had a tire iron in one hand and held the other to help Alex up. "Keep fighting."

Alex nodded dumbly. John was clear-headed in battle, Alex felt like a cloud. Drifting, foggy, unsure of his direction.

The rest of the fight happened in a blur. Burr finally made it to a sniping position on the roof, and about three of the people in red fell, arrows in their heads and necks. Alex still struggled with one, didn’t even know who the guy was, what he looked like. He was just trying to get him off for just a minute, just long enough to get the upper hand. Managed to get the other knife out of his boot, drove it into the man’s thigh. When he didn’t react to it immediately, Alex took it out and drove it back in, finally the man let go.

Alex was on him, tackled him to the ground. One sick stab to his eye, and he was gone. Alex stood, stepped out from around him, looked down at his body, shaking and panting.

Not far from where he stood was Angie, panting, hair coming out of her braid, speckled with blood. Then he noticed John, keeling on the ground. He was hurt, there was blood seeping out onto the dirt around him, coming from his stomach.

And he was _smiling_. A dirty, rough, wild looking smile, his face and clothes decorated in blood. It was like Alex woke up, then. Unsettled, sick, and suddenly very aware of the situation. John nodded once at Alex and Angie. “Thanks,” he said. Next to him was Lee, unconscious on the ground.

“I can’t believe we just killed all those people,” Angie said, saying what had been playing in a loop in Alex's mind. “All those _humans_.”

Humans _._ Right. They were humans. Why would they do this? How did Alex end up with all this goddamn blood on his hands? He glanced at John.

“For the record,” John reached behind him, “Lee’s still alive.” A gunshot, piercing through the night sky, Lee’s head came apart all over the dirt. Angie gasped, Alex closed his eyes.

_Fuck._

John struggled up to his feet, holding his wound. Lafayette came running out of the front door, motioning for John to follow him inside. “Are all of you wounded?” He asked.

Angie shook her head, voice still in shock. “Just a few scrapes,” she managed.

Alex made a vague gesture. Didn't have a full response.

“So this means John is the only one who came out wounded?” Lafayette asked, helping them all inside and shutting the door behind them. “What a surprise,” he added sarcastically.

“Hey,” John said. “Took out a bunch of them with nothing. Cut a guy a break.”

Alex felt like he was moving different now. The way he walked was slow and clumsy now. Still recovering.

“They’re human, John,” Lafayette said.

Human.

“They ambushed us, Laf,” John said. “Tried to take this place over. We saw this coming. Of course his fuckin’ highness couldn’t come in the flesh.”

His highness?

“We do not know they are working together,” Laf defended.

“Grow up, Laf,” John bit back. “Of course they are. Common enemy.”

“And they might not be alone,” Lafayette reminded, voice low.

“Hercules mentioned a group that was an enemy to you all,” Angie said. “Is that who you’re talking about?”

“Yeah, I think it was them behind it.”

“Why?”

John shrugged. “Asking the wrong guy. I have no idea what they want with us.”

Alex realized almost numbly that nobody else had woken up at the ruckus. Sound proof theaters, maybe. Scary. He and Angie followed Laf’s advice and tailed them into the back room, the one Eliza had been treated in not long ago.

“Sometimes,” Lafayette said, going through his medical supplies. “I think you enjoy fighting.”

John blew out a laugh.

Alex sat in silence while Laf tended to a wound on John's eyebrow. Glanced at Angie. She must've seen something in his face, because then she took his hand and squeezed it, something between understanding and pity in her eyes. 

He rose and silently excused himself for just a moment.

 

 

Alex ended up taking a minute to get some water, and cool out in the bathroom for a moment. Washed his hands, and the water that disappeared down the drain was red. He had to scrub at the dried bits on his hands.

It was fine. It was life now. People adapt or they die. 

Why was Alex the one who seemed the most fucked up by this? After the look Angie gave him, Alex swallowed a part of himself away. He wasn't scared. He convinced himself  he wasn't scared of the hurricane when he was a kid, or the sickness that took his mother and left his bones hollow. He convinced himself wasn't scared of what he was becoming. What this world was trying to make him. He was a professional adapter. This was nothing.

He scrubbed at his hands and arms for a while until the water ran clear again. A symbol of purity. He was pure again. Yeah, that's what that means.

He didn't look in the mirror.

Splashed some water on his face and joined Angie, Laf, and John in the back room again.

He arrived just in time to hear Lafayette instruct John, "arms up." John did as he was told, slowly because of his injury. Laf pulled his shirt over his head.

Alex dropped his gaze to the floor. Nope. Absolutely not here for this.

“You got stabbed,” he heard Lafayette say. “But not severely. Alexander, Angelica, thank you for helping the fight.”

“No problem,” Angie said.

“Anytime,” Alex’s voice cracked just a little, and he hated himself. Kept looking at the floor.

John whistled, got Alex’s attention. “What? There something more interesting on my floor or something?”

The bastard. And the way he phrased it. _My floor_ , what kind of alpha male bullshit was that?

Alex looked up, John was built and sculpted beautifully, all hard lines and edges. A bit of beauty in the aftermath of so much ugly. And the bit of beauty was smirking.

“Was just giving you your privacy,” Alex cleared his throat, tried to stay cool.

“Is that what you call leaning with your ear against my office door, too? Privacy?” John asked. “Because I noticed that earlier, too.”

Angie raised an eyebrow, Alex sighed.

“Yeah,” he said. Because, really, what else did he have to say at this point? “Yeah that’s what I call it.”

“Right,” John nodded.

The great thing about being Alexander Hamilton was that nothing seemed to throw him off for long. Yes, he had just gone through a mini-crisis in the bathroom, but now it was time to argue. Something shifted in him again. By God, could Alex argue. 

“That guy a friend of yours?” Alex asked. “You know, the one who’s head you blew off while he was lying in the dirt half-unconscious?”

Silence. Lafayette’s hands stopped working for a moment as the statement fell heavy in the room, but continued soon after. John kept smirking, seemingly unphased.

“Charles Lee,” John said. “And no, he’s not a friend.”

“He seemed chummy with you.”

“We used to know each other,” John shot back.

“Until?”

“Mind your business…” John trailed off. “Was it… Aaron? Andrew?”

“Alex.”

“Right,” John smiled. “Of course. Alex.”

“You used to know Charles Lee until…?” Alex pressed.

“Until I blew his face off like five minutes ago,” John smiled. “If you don’t want to end up the same way, I suggest you simmer down.”

“Maybe I’ll leave you to it,” Angie said awkwardly. “I’ll go make sure Eliza’s doing well.”

“Right,” Alex said, still looking John in the eyes. “Somebody’s gonna have to clean that up. Ferals are probably beating on the fence already trying to get to all that dead meat.”

“Is that a volunteer I hear?” John asked.

“Since you had so much fun killing them, maybe cleaning up will be just as fun for you.”

“Fighting is what I’m good at.”

“No, _I’m_ good at fighting. You’re good at _killing_. There’s a difference.”

A silence. John’s face was unflinching, but his eyes gave him away. Alex had hit a nerve.

“Why don’t you go check on your girl?” John asked. “Or are you too busy staring at my chest to get up?”

Alex was definitely gonna hit this guy.

“Yeah, it’s not that impressive. I _will_ go see my girlfriend, thank you very much,” he said. “Have fun bleeding out, asshole.”

John actually laughed as Alex got up and left.

 

 

 

“You’re brooding.”

“I’m not brooding,” Alex mumbled.

“Yes you are,” Eliza insisted, snuggled up to him. “Why are you brooding?”

“Well I just killed a bunch of people, so there’s that.”

“You mentioned that,” Eliza said. “And Herc and Eliza are apparently out there on cleanup duty. If anyone should be brooding, it’s her. She had to kill them _and_ clean them up.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Alex hummed. "She's always been tougher than me."

Eliza was cuddling him, stroking his hair lovingly. The ultimate calm, a welcome breath of relief after so much fighting and action. She was like a drug. Like a beautiful, perfect drug. She was the water running over him, making him shades of pink until he could be clear again.

"There is something," Alex muttered after a few moments of silence.

"What kind of something?"

"Something I want to talk about."

Eliza sat up just a little. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah of course," Alex nodded. "I mean... yeah, I am. I keep... I keep replaying it, though."

"The fight?"

"Yeah," Alex whispered hoarsely.

"That won't help you," Eliza said patiently. "Just know you did the right thing. What you had to do. Be at peace with that."

Alex held back a laugh. He'd never been at peace his whole life.

"And, by the way, John? Yeah, he's a fuckhead."

“John Laurens?”

“Yeah.”

“What’d he do?” Eliza asked. “I met him earlier. He seemed sweet.”

“He’s not,” Alex said, almost offended Eliza thought highly of John. “He’s an asshole. And I think he enjoys killing people.”

Shit, guess Alex had decided to take out everything on John, even when he wasn't there. Who knew.

A silence. “Okay,” Eliza said slowly. “Explain.”

“I don’t know. He killed the same amount of people as me and your sister combined, if not more. And he was smiling at the end of it. Then he shot a guy even though the guy was already down.”

Eliza was silent, choosing her words carefully. Something Alex was never capable of doing. “Well, I’d be lying if I said the smiling thing wasn’t unsettling, but maybe he was happy he survived?” she offered. “And maybe he needed the guy dead. We don’t know who it was.”

“Are you seriously taking that punk’s side in all this?”

“Did you seriously just call him a ‘punk’?” Eliza laughed.

“Not the point.”

“Right. Okay. Sorry. I’m just saying don’t make snap judgements of people. He’s in charge of all these people, and they all think highly of him. I doubt he's all bad. Maybe…maybe fighting is his thing. Or maybe he gets carried away when things get violent. We don’t know.”

“Also he totally thinks I was checking him out earlier,” Alex mumbled.

Eliza’s hand stilled in his hair. “You wanna repeat that?”

“He thought I was checking him out when Laf took off his shirt.”

“Were you?”

“That’s neither here nor there,” Alex said.

“Nah, it’s _everywhere_. Were you checking him out or not?”

At this point, Alex couldn’t tell if she was actually mad or not. He took his chances.

“I mean… _maybe_ I was…”

“God damnit, Alex,” Eliza sighed. “So really you’re not mad at him, you’re just embarrassed he noticed you checking him out.”

"No, I'm still having a full crisis, don't get me wrong," Alex said, then paused. “Are you mad at me?”

Eliza sighed again. “For the fight? No. I'm proud of you. For the checking John out thing? I guess not. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t checked Laf out.”

Alex raised his hand for a silent fist bump, Eliza did the same. The water ran clear again.

 

 

 

When Alex woke up the next morning, he could hear the rumble of the gates from outside.

And so he decided to investigate. Carefully untangled himself from around Eliza and walked outside, stretching and yawning.

He rounded the corner into the lobby where he saw John hugging some girl while Lafayette took two big duffle bags from her.

“Glad you’re alive,” John said to her.

“What? You thought a couple nights out would kill me?” She asked playfully. “You should know better.”

Alex stepped forward until he was in her peripheral, she turned and looked.

“Who’s the new guy?”

John considered for a moment. “Alejandro.”

“ _Alexander_ ,” Alex corrected, and John just smirked.

“Jackass,” the girl mumbled, walked forward to Alex and shook his hand.

She was beautiful, really. Curly hair cut short, beautiful skin, pouty lips. She smiled in a familiar way.

“I’m Peggy. It’s good to meet you.”

Alex’s smile dropped. Did the world stop turning? The world must’ve stopped turning.

“You’re who?” He asked.

She raised an eyebrow. “Peggy,” she said, slower this time, like she was talking to a child.

“Peggy what?”

“Excuse you—“

“Peggy what?” Alex demanded, John moved forward.

“Raise your voice at her again,” John said, low and dangerous. “Please. I want you to.”

Alex just shook his head.

“Peggy Schuyler?” He asked, like the words hurt his mouth.

Her face fell. “Who the hell are you?” She asked. “I don’t tell people my last name.”

“Holy shit,” Alex said, ran an exited hand through his hair. “Holy _shit_!” He said louder. “Listen, Pegs, Peggy, just stay here,” he held up two hands, palms out, like he was trying to calm an animal. “Just stay right here, okay? Don’t move.”

He turned and ran in one motion, arrived in the theater Eliza was sleeping in in under five seconds. Angie was nearby, reading a book she’d found.

“Girls,” Alex said, went to Eliza to wake her up from her nap. “You want to come to the lobby.”

“Why?” Eliza asked sleepily.

“Just… please,” Alex leaned down to help her up, Angie ran over to take her other side.

“What’s out there?” Angie asked as they hobbled up the isle.

“I—“ Alex shook his head.

“Alex, what’s wrong?” Eliza asked, now fully awake.

“Just look.”

They rounded the corner to the lobby where John and the girl were still standing, flabbergasted.

“Oh my God.”

Alex wasn’t sure if it was Angie or Eliza that said that. Peggy looked at them with wide eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but choked on the words.

“Peggy,” Angie breathed cautiously. “ _Peggy_?” The second one was a disbelieving question.

Peggy nodded, tears in her eyes, feet seemingly glued to the floor.

“Pegs,” Eliza whispered. “Oh my God _._ Is that really you?”

Peggy was on them in an instant, wrapping her sisters up in her arms. It felt like an intensely private moment, but the joy radiating off the three of them was overwhelming in such a bleak world as the one around them.

Even here, in the middle of a foreign environment, surrounded by people they didn't really know, the Schuyler sisters had found the light. They found each other, and that was enough. Alex thought of his brother, the one he hadn't seen since early childhood. He had no point of reference for what the girls must be feeling. The closest thing he had to being that close to someone was Eliza, and he, thankfully, had not lost her. A smile lingered on his lips.

When the hug broke, Peggy whipped around and pointed a finger at John.

“Why did you not tell me they were here?” She snapped.

His jaw dropped. “I didn’t realize they were your fucking sisters!”

“Have you been here this whole time?” Eliza asked, voice breaking.

Peggy shook her head. “We have a lot of catching up to do. Who’s the guy with the ponytail?”

Eliza smiled. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”

“You cut your hair,” Angie said. “And it doesn’t actually look awful.”

“Hercules did it,” she smiled. “Of course I can’t cut my own hair, Ang. I can barely tie my shoes.”

They laughed, then the Schuyler sisters disappeared into one of the theaters, Peggy and Angie propping Eliza up between them. They were laughing together, Alex felt his heart come together.

“Wow,” he said, cleared his throat. “Hell of a day. That Schuyler bloodline is indestructible,” Alex laughed lightly.

There was a brief, very awkward silence. Alex was still uncomfortable around John, didn’t quite understand their dynamic, but he knew it wasn’t positive and that set him on edge. He thought about what he’d just witnessed and turned to John.

“Wait,” Alex said, lawyer mind running at 1000 miles an hour. “Wait. You sent a seventeen year old girl out for supplies by herself?”

“She’s twenty,” John said disinterestedly.

“No, she’s seventeen. And you sent her out alone.”

“She can handle herself better than anyone here,” John said. “She’s the reason I’m alive. Trust me, people just slow her down. And she’s definitely twenty, by the way.”

“She lied, she’s seventeen, ask her sisters,” Alex jumped onto his next point. “And how do you know her like that? Well enough to hug her and stuff?”

John’s eyebrows furrowed. “What are you implying here, Alexander?”

Alex took a deep breath and just decided to fucking go for it. “That she’s seventeen and you’re obviously fucking her.”

John scoffed loudly. “Wow, what a rollercoaster. Careful, you’ll make like your girl and break your ankle from jumping to all those conclusions.”

“Tell me I’m wrong then.”

“You’re wrong,” John turned around and tried to retreat back to his office. Alex caught him by the shoulder and whipped him around. John was lean, but all muscle. Alex knew the only reason he was able to move him was that John let himself be moved, but he still took it as a victory.

“Then explain it to me, really. I want to know. Because when I tell Angie and Eliza—“

“What, the girls are gonna fight your battles for you?” John asked. “I’m not fucking Peggy. Never touched her like that. Never thought about it. You should be careful how you approach me, by the way. I’ll throw all your asses out in a heartbeat.”

“And Peggy will come with us,” Alex said. “She won’t leave her sisters now that they’re together. And you already mentioned how useful she is to you. You can’t kick us out.”

John breathed deep. “You have the most punchable face I've ever seen.”

“And you’re fucking Peggy.”

“Oh my God!” John threw his arms up, exasperated. “Oh my _God_. It’s not— we’re both— you know what? I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“If you don’t want Angie to dropkick you, then yeah, you kind of have to.”

“We’re both _gay_ , Alex,” John said.

Alex was silent for a moment while he considered it.

“I never heard anything about Peggy being gay.”

“That’s because she never told them.”

Alex looked John up and down.

“I don’t know what kind of proof you’re looking for,” John grumbled. “We’re close. We found each other when I came here. For a while, we were the only ones who would go on supply runs and shit. We’ve been through a lot together. So, yeah, I hug her when I see her. I’m happy she’s alive and I’m happy she’s my friend, but I’m _not_ fucking her.”

“So why'd she lie about being older?” Alex asked.

John shrugged. “Ask her, not me. I don’t fucking know. But I know she’s gay.”

“Who’s gay?” Hercules came walking in at that moment.

“Peggy and John, apparently.”

John’s eyes widened, he gave Alex a silent cut-throat gesture.

“Holy shit dude, you’re gay?” Hercules asked.

John groaned, turned to Alex. “Thanks, bro. Really appreciate you doing that.”

Alex was speechless.

Hercules just shook his head in disbelief. “You’re fucking _gay_?” He asked again. “Like _gay-_ gay or just gay?”

John sighed deep. “Just, like, normal gay. I don’t know. Can we like, maybe, just keep this between us?”

“Can’t believe you’re gay, man,” Herc said. “Is that why only one of your ears is pierced?”

“My ear is pierced because I was in a gang.”

“A gay gang?”

“Just a gang, Herc.”

“ _Shit_ ,” Herc said. “Truth’s coming out tonight. You got any deep dark secrets, Alexander?”

Alex thought for a moment, happy to take some of the heat off John. “Well, I’m bi. And I was never in a gang but I have been in an orgy.”

“Jesus _Christ_ ,” John groaned.

“Huh,” Herc considered.

“What now?” John asked tiredly.

“Nothing. I just figured Laf would be the gay one.”

John opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again. Alex raised a curious eyebrow.

The silence seemed to speak to Herc. “ _No_ ,” he said. “Laf’s—“

“Laf is openly pansexual.”

There was a silence while Hercules’ face went through several expressions. Finally, he settled on one of shock.

“You’ve fucked Laf, haven’t you?” Herc asked in a whisper.

“Please go away now.”

“Did Laf fuck _you_?”

“I’m done here,” John turned and started to walk back to his office. “Alex? By the way? Yeah, I fucking hate you. Hope you choke.” He slammed the door behind him.

Alex looked at Herc judgmentally. “You could’ve handled that better.”

“And you shouldn’t have outed him like that. We’re both at fault here.”

They both sat in guilty silence for a while.

“You were really in an orgy?” Herc finally asked.

“Goodnight, Herc,” Alex said tiredly, retreated into the theater Eliza and her sisters were in.

They were catching up, laughing, talking. Alex went and took a seat next to Eliza, wanting to tell her everything that just happened but not really wanting to interrupt their conversation. If it weren’t for Eliza holding and toying with his hand, Alex would’ve wondered if he was actually invisible.

It went on for probably hours before Alex finally gave up, leaned over and kissed Eliza’s hair. “You going to sleep anytime soon?” He asked.

She shrugged. “Too much excitement,” she said. “But also Peggy brought back prescription pain meds she found in an old pharmacy, so I'm a little high right now and I’m honestly loving it.”

“Hell yeah,” Peggy said.

Alex laughed. “I’ll leave you to it,” he said, moderately disappointed. “It’s good to meet you, by the way,” he said to Peggy. “Sorry if I was weird at first.”

She brushed him off. “You’re fine, Alex. They told me all about it. I understand you being a little weird.”

He smiled a little. “Well I’ll leave you to it,” he repeated, rose back up and exited the theater.

And Alex was a selfish bastard, he really was. Missed being in the center of Angie and Eliza’s worlds and it had only been a few hours. But they deserved time with their sister and only their sister. Of course they deserved it, and he had no right to feel any kind of way about it.

That didn’t make it any easier.

 

 

 

The next day passed quite a bit smoother. A little less tension, but a lot less Eliza.

Alex felt stupid, co-dependent, almost. Not being with her every minute of every day was an adjustment, and all her attention going to somebody else was a _hell_ of an adjustment, but he swallowed it. She wasn’t purposefully ignoring him, after all. She was just happy to be with her sisters.

Alex tried to be with them while they ate breakfast (which was just leftover deer and water). He loved watching them interact, loved how effortlessly they picked up where they had left off.

“I really do love your new hair, Pegs,” Angie said.

“I don’t,” Eliza deadpanned. “Too scruffy.”

“Well excuse me, miss prim and proper even while killing zombies.”

“You’re excused.”

Peggy laughed, turned to Angie. “Honestly, how did you even deal with her alone all this time?” She asked.

Angie shrugged in response. “Had to. And she’s usually tamer around Alex.”

Alex smiled, happy to be included in their conversation. He raised an eyebrow. “I make her tamer?”

“Yes,” Angie and Peggy said at the same time.

Eliza laughed, hushed them both. “Well Peggy’s basically eighty years old at heart anyways, so who’s really the tamer one?”

“Hey,” Peggy said, offended. “I am _not_ eighty at heart. I’d say I’m a strong sixty-five.”

“Add ten, you’re getting warmer,” Angie offered. More laughter.

“Remember that time your friends came over to get you to go to that pow-wow party thing your freshmen year?” Eliza asked.

Peggy raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

“Oh my _God_ ,” Angie snorted. “They came to pick you up and you had fallen asleep on the couch while knitting a scarf.”

“Not funny!” Peggy said. “That, like, almost ruined my reputation.”

“What reputation?” Eliza asked. “Other than dating that boy with the mohawk, you had no reputation.”

“And _Sean_ ,” Angie added.

“Oh my God how could I forget Sean?” Eliza laughed.

Alex's attention drifted. He tried to link arms with Eliza, but she was talking so animatedly that she ended up flinging his arm off every time. Eventually, he just got up and left.

They didn’t seem to notice. Alex wasn’t sure if he was relieved or offended.

He walked out of the theater, feeling like a kicked puppy. It was so stupid. He really had no right to be upset about any of this. He was happy for them, he really was.

“Alexander?”

“I’m happy for them!” He said suddenly, turned around to where the voice came from, stopped in his tracks. “Didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

Burr laughed lightly. “Want to help me do rounds?” He held up his clipboard and clicked his pen a few times.

Alex shrugged. “Don’t have anything better to do.”

“That’s the spirit,” Burr joked, kept walking to Theater Two. “Who are you happy for, by the way?”

“Oh,” Alex said. “My girlfriend. And her sisters. Your heard about the whole reunited thing right?”

“I did,” Burr smiled. “It’s honestly a beautiful story. I’m happy for them too.”

They made small talk, talked about where they grew up, found out they went to the same college for almost a year, both with the same major.

“Can’t believe we never ran into each other,” Burr said, checking something on his clipboard. “What dorm were you in?”

“Elliot Hall.”

“Shit!” He said. “I had a girlfriend in Elliot. Second floor.”

“Small world,” Alex said.

Burr mumbled in agreement, opened a door beside the janitor’s closet Alex hadn’t noticed before.

“What’s in here?” He asked as Burr flipped on the light.

“Stairs,” Burr said, climbing the steps with ease. “And up here is the projector room. But it doesn’t have air conditioning so, like, don’t come up here in the summer unless you want to explode.”

“Won’t be here that long, got nothing to worry about,” he smiled.

“It’s also roof access,” Burr opened and shut a closet door, checking something else off. “We usually go up there and survey the place.”

“Oh hell yeah!” Alex grinned wide. “Can we go up?”

Burr didn’t respond immediately, examined one of the projectors, walked in and out of another closet. Finally, he responded with a resounding yes.

“Dope!” Alex said.

He kicked a small footstool over to the adjacent wall, took a key out of his pocket and opened the small lock on the door. It opened with ease, Burr climbed up, held a hand out to help Alex climb as well.

The roof was… a roof. Admittedly not as cool as he’d hoped. There was pigeon poop, all the weird roof structures that Alex never really knew what they did, but it did have an alright view. Alex took what he could get when it came to finding beauty in the world. In what was left of it, anyway.

“This is where John and I picked off that herd for you,” Burr pointed to the side of the building.

“Shit,” Alex said, looking at the distance from them to the gate. “You guys are some marksmen.”

Burr shrugged humbly. “It was necessary. Nothing to get too excited about.”

He paced around the perimeter of the roof, surveying the fence, noticing the few Ferals that were wondering around outside the gate.

“See that?” Burr asked, pointed to the back to the building. Alex looked.

“What?”

“Hole in the fence,” Burr pointed with his pen. Keep patching it, keeps getting ripped apart. Guess the feral’s can tell it’s a weak point. It’s why we don’t survey the grounds much anymore. Too dangerous.”

“That’s some real shit,” Alex said.

“And our generator is fucked,” Burr said. “While we’re pointing out all the ways this place is going to hell. Our generator is definitely on its way out.”

“Does that mean no more light or hot water?”

“Yup.”

“You gotta fix that, man.”

“Working on it,” Burr answered. “Thanks for coming with me, by the way. Nice to have the company.”

The last part of that was said just a little too quiet to be purely nonchalant, but Alex pretended to ignore that fact. “Anytime,” he smiled. “I’ll be here the rest of today and tomorrow, probably. My girlfriend has pretty much left me for her little sister so if you ever want company I’m here for you.”

Burr made a face. “Maybe don’t phrase it like that.”

“What, that Eliza left me for her little sister?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, that sounds creepy,” Alex shrugged. “I’m gonna go bother Herc, you’re free to join if you want.”

Burr smiled a bit. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d like that.”

 

 

 

By the end of the day, Alex and Burr got pretty close, and it felt nice just to have somebody to talk to. Lafayette disappeared for a good part of the day, like a true international man of mystery. Herc alternated between actual work and hanging out with Alex and Burr. John stayed mostly out of sight, going between the fucked up generator, the weapons closet, and his office.

When the sun went down, Alex went to where Eliza and her sisters were to give her the routine goodnight kiss. He walked in, heard them playing the game.

“Pumpkins!”

“Pristine.”

“Precipitation!”

“Pregnant!”

“Poignant!”

Alex felt a small sting. That was… that was their game. Okay, maybe he was being stupid. Yeah.

He walked in anyway, they kept playing. Leaned down and kissed Eliza on the head, and she pretty much ignored him in favor of shouting the word “Perforated!”

“Night,” Alex said quietly, turned and walked out. It was dark out, had been for a while. Pretty much everyone had gone to bed. Alex felt like he couldn’t sleep.

Maybe he was insecure, maybe he was paranoid. What if she was ignoring him on purpose? She'd never acted like this before. Eliza was the first person, the only person, to really pay attention to him. The first person to really love him, the first person that accepted everything about him. 

He glanced out the front windows, the same ones Angie had searched for an escape route out of when they first arrived. Too black outside to see anything. No light left to illuminate anything. Alex's insides were starting to feel like that. 

“Ahem.”

Alex looked up, torn away from his thoughts. John was walking around with a clipboard, looking at Alex wryly. “What are you doing up?”

“Just… just went to say goodnight to Eliza,” he shrugged. “What are _you_ doing up?”

“Rounds,” John held up his clipboard. “Midnight rounds, the last of the day.”

“Or first, depending on how you look at it,” Alex corrected.

John rolled his eyes a bit. “Right.”

 

John walked right past him, and Alex opted to follow him into the janitor’s closet.

“What are you doing?” John spun around. “You shouldn’t be in here at all.”

Alex shrugged. “You seemed lonely, I’m keeping you company.”

John laughed sharply, attention on the clipboard. “I think you’re projecting, pal.”

Alex scoffed. “So do you get off on being an asshole or is it just a personality trait?”

“Both,” John responded decisively. “And I may be an asshole but at least I don’t out people against their will.”

“How was I supposed to know it was a secret?” Alex asked. “You told me you and Peggy were gay, Herc walked in, I updated him. It’s not like you told me not to tell.”

“Shouldn’t have to,” John said, leaning down to rifle through a box of ammo. “You should just have the decency to be discreet until you know.”

“Okay,” Alex relented. “My bad. I’m sorry for outing you and Peggy.”

“In front of Herc,” John added. “Herc, the straightest one out of all of us.”

“I’m sorry for outing you in front of your straight friend.”

“Apology not accepted.”

John shoved past Alex, went into the stairwell and made his way up the stairs. Alex followed.

“What do you mean ‘apology not accepted’?” Alex asked.

“Are you really still following me?” John raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. And why is my apology not accepted?”

“If you apologize only so the other person will accept your apology, not because you’re actually sorry, then you haven’t actually apologized,” John said. When Alex raised an eyebrow, he explained. “Southern upbringing. I know my manners.”

“I thought you were in a gang,” Alex said.

“After I got kicked out of my southern upbringing, yes.”

“They have gangs in the south?”

“New York,” John said. “Moved up there when I got booted out. And you’re changing the subject.”

“What gang were you in?”

“Go back downstairs please.”

“Why’d you get kicked out?”

“Really tying to work here.”

“Did you and Lafayette really have sex?”

John looked up from his clipboard. “Why do you wanna know? Are you storing it in your wank bank or something?”

“No,” well, maybe. “Just curious. Come on, what am I gonna do?”

“I don’t know, maybe announce it to everyone over a loudspeaker? That seems like the logical next step for you.”

“Cross my heart,” Alex made a show of crossing his heart with his finger.

John smiled despite himself, a ghost of a genuine expression, then it was gone again. “Alright,” he said. “Yeah. Laf and I fucked.”

“Once?”

“A couple times.”

“Scandalous,” Alex said. “Tell me more.”

“Why are you so damn nosey?” John asked.

“Because you don’t make any sense to me, and I’m a people person so that really makes me uncomfortable. Trying to learn, here.”

“By getting the details of me hooking up with Lafayette?”

“It’s a start.”

“It was when I first got here,” John said. “Laf was Washington’s second in command. And he’s kind of the doctor guy around here, and I needed some help pretty often.”

“For what?”

“Not your business.”

“Dammit, man,” Alex said. “Come on.”

“Nah,” John walked to another projector, checked off a few things. “But, anyway, we were together a lot. One thing led to another.”

“Is Laf good in bed?”

John whistled. “Oh yeah.” He walked to the roof access, unlocked it with a small key the same way Burr had earlier. Alex followed him up.

When they were both up, John went to shining his light only on the fence border and the inside, the light eerily illuminating where a group of Ferals had found the bodies Angie and Herc had stacked a few yards from the fence.

Alex looked up. Above them was beautiful, more beautiful than any sky Alex saw in the city before everything happened.

“You know,” Alex said. “The virus fucked a lot of things up, but the stars seem brighter now.”

“Less pollution, we can actually see them finally.”

“It’s like they refused to come out until the world was ending.”

“Nah, they’ve been there the whole time,” John said. “We just weren’t looking.”

There was a pretty heavy silence, and Alex wasn’t sure what that meant.

“So what about you?” John asked. “You know a lot about me now. Tell me something about you that doesn’t have to do with you being a bisexual orgy participant.”

“My defining moment,” Alex joked. “I don’t know. I’m from Nevis.”

“Hurricane town?”

“Yeah.”

“What else?”

“Met Eliza during the apocalypse. Love at first sight and all that jazz.”

“I don’t believe in that,” John said. “But carry on.”

“They were actually looking for Peggy,” Alex said. “When I found them, and for months after, they were always looking for Peggy.”

“Peggy was with me,” John said. “Well, not the whole time. Some of it. She tried looking for them, too.”

“She did?”

“Yeah,” John said. “Guess paths just didn’t cross. Finally gave up, assumed they were dead.”

“That’s what Angelica did,” Alex said. “That’s a very long, very sad story though.”

“Yeah,” John said. He paused for a moment, sat down carefully with his back supported against a small wall. Made a face while he did it, trying to keep his torso straight.

"How's the..." Alex trailed off, gestured to John's stomach where he knew thread was holding bits of him together.

"Fine. Not great without pain pills, but could be worse."

"There's pain pills here," Alex said helpfully. "'Liza has some. Want me to bring you some?"

"She offered. I'm good. It's by choice."

"You choose to not get lit off hydrocodone?" Alex asked. "You do weirder shit everyday, you know that?"

John smiled shallowly, just a bit. “You smoke?” He pulled out a cigarette pack and a lighter from his jacket pocket.

“This is the end of the world. How the hell do you smoke?” Alex asked.

“Only sometimes,” John admitted, held the cigarette between his teeth and lit it. “Just if I need a little bit to wind down.”

“You could usually use some winding down,” Alex remarked.

John blew out a laugh with a puff of smoke. Alex, feeling suddenly awkward standing over John, took a seat next to him. John offered Alex a drag of the cigarette, Alex declined.

Alex hated himself. Couldn’t help but stare at John’s lips wrapped so delicately around the cigarette, the way his hand held it, how he’d close his eyes gently with each deep inhale. Beauty in a small, beaten frame. Somewhere between being delicate and commanding. The lips around the cigarette turned up in a small amused grin.

“Absolutely shameless,” John said, smiling and shaking his head.

Alex froze. “What is?”

“ _You_ are,” John said. “You’re in a committed relationship, quit looking at me like you wanna eat me.”

“I wasn’t—“

“Really? You’re gonna lie about it again? I know when somebody’s checking me out, dude.”

“Then you should know I wasn’t, _dude_ ,” Alex snarled.

“Sure,” John replied.

“I _wasn’t_ ,” Alex insisted.

“Okay,” John took a drag of the cigarette. Alex looked at the ground. “You can go back downstairs now. Nothing left to do, really.”

Alex almost pouted. No way was he leaving on that note. He held out a hand, looked at John expectantly.

“What?”

“Cigarette.”

John smiled. “Thought you didn't smoke.”

“Never said that. Besides, I'm a badass now. Accidentally found some used heroin needles at a house right before we came here. So, you could say I'm a drug expert."

John stopped cold. 

"What?" He asked.

"What what?" Alex said. "What about the heroin?"

"Where were you before this?" Suddenly everything was serious. Serious for John, even. And John's default state was serious as a coronary.

"Don't know. Some house a couple towns over. Kind of in the middle of nowhere. Less ferals out in the country, you know."

"Master bedroom. Was there a corpse in the bed?" John asked.

"A corpse?"

"You heard me."

"More like a skeleton, but yeah. Had a baseball cap on its head--"

"And a pipe in it's mouth?" John asked.

"What, you used to live there or something?" Alex asked. "Yeah, he had a pipe in his mouth."

John breathed out the ghost of a laugh. Something bitter, but with a hint of amusement left to it.

"Yeah, Lee and I did that."

"What?" Alex asked.

"We were there, before we came to Washington's, actually," John said. "Left the damn map with the theater marked on it, so we stumbled around for a few days before we navigated it right."

"Well, we found the map," Alex said. "As fate would have it."

"As fate would have it," John repeated quietly, taking another long drag.

"You and Lee really were friends, huh?"

"Remnants of an older time," John said. "It's dead now," he paused. "And he is too, I guess," he added quietly.

Alex chewed on that all for a moment. Small world. He looked at John again, then down to his hands. Didn't ask about the needles. Didn't want to. Suddenly he understood why John wasn't taking any pain medicine.

"Well?" John broke Alex's train of thought.

"Well what?"

"You still wanna try this or what?" John smiled, gesturing with his cigarette. Alex took it from him uncertainly, took too large of a drag, and coughed and sputtered the smoke out.

John’s laughter echoed off the roof.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He managed between laughs.

Alex coughed again, eyes red, laughing too. “Yeah,” he cleared his throat. “Yeah, I don’t smoke.”

“I can tell,” John chuckled.

“Should not have tried that,” Alex coughed again, handed back the cigarette.

“You didn’t even smoke in college?”

“Nah,” Alex shook his head.

“Why not?”

Alex sighed, picked at his jacket sleeve absently. “I got a thing, like, I’m always acutely aware that there’s a billion little bits in me all working really hard to keep me alive, and I never wanted to make their job any harder than it is, ya know?”

“That’s ridiculous,” John said.

Alex shrugged. “It’s right, though.”

“So you literally just tried to smoke this just now, against your inner voice, just to prove a point?” John held his cigarette up.

“Apocalypse and shit,” Alex shrugged. “Our days are numbered anyway.”

“Got that right.”

“Thought it was worth a shot,” Alex shrugged. “Didn’t mean to be a bitch about it, but I am not surprised I was.”

John nodded, looked at Alex with mischief in his eye.

“…What?” Alex asked suspiciously.

“Here,” John took a long pull of his cigarette. Alex watched the lit, glowing end of it recede back into ashes. John reached out to grab Alex’s chin and bring his face towards him.

Smoke came billowing out of his mouth into Alex’s, who inhaled it, and blew it back to John. John smiled.

“See? Now you’ve smoked. You’ve got your man card back.”

Somewhere between dazed and aroused, Alex laughed lightly. John didn’t smile back, and he didn’t let go of Alex’s chin. Eyes locked in an intense moment, air around them heavy, smelling like smoke and the most exciting sense of unease. Neither of them moved, faces inches away from each other.

John reacted first, a sigh and a smile, and dropped his hand from Alex chin, moved away. Shook his head.

“Jesus,” he muttered. “ I should go.”

“We both should.”

John raised an eyebrow.

“I mean… like, to sleep. Separately.” Alex said quickly.

“Separately, right. Yeah, of course,” he put out his cigarette, left it on the roof, cleared his throat. “Right then. Sleep.”

“Yeah.”

Alex went back inside first, John followed a few minutes after, leaving only a half smoked cigarette and a night sky behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna keep it real, I already have most of this thing written out so y'all just let me know if you want a chapter 2 and I got you. Need to make some adjustments, but it'll be good.
> 
> Please comment because if you want a chapter 2, nothing will get me off my ass quicker than some nice words or even criticism. I live for your feedback (and also chicken tenders, but I digress.) Based off my other fic, some of you are really out here being super deep about my writing and fuck that's absolutely the coolest thing because I really do work on it and getting some encouragement goes a long way.
> 
> Even if you don't comment, thank you for reading. I'm really actually proud of this and I hope you guys like it. <3


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